1.3 – The Inquiry

President Romana has been called to account for her actions. But the only evidence to support her defence has disappeared.

1 Comment

Styre
on May 8, 2016 at 2:33 AM

GALLIFREY: THE INQUIRY

“It’s a Justin Richards script” should say a lot, and most of it positive: you’re going to get a twisty, well-constructed plot, solid characterization, and a foundation of good ideas. Richards has never been the type to challenge his audience, though, and occasionally he can veer sharply towards boredom. This is apparent in his Gallifrey script “The Inquiry,” which makes one incredibly significant mistake: it presents a lack of incident as drama!

I can’t help but think that Richards went the wrong way with this script. The ideas at its core are fascinating: there’s a great deal of intrigue regarding the timonic fusion device, the role of Braxiatel shifts around at least three times, and the mystery surrounding Andred’s disappearance is fleshed out somewhat. Unfortunately, Richards chooses to focus on the time-travel elements of the plot to the exclusion of almost all others, leading to an ongoing central debate over whether or not the timonic fusion device ever actually existed. This is totally uninteresting: it’s not a conflict in any relatable sense of the term, merely an abstract, academic discussion. I understand that this is the sort of thing that might be discussed on Gallifrey; I also understand why RTD (and, hell, Richards himself) blew the place up. There’s also a countdown to a virus being released into the Matrix, and potentially destroying it — but nobody in the play seems to treat this possibility half as seriously as you might expect.

Thing is, I enjoyed the supporting details of “The Inquiry” quite a bit. Yes, the event named in the title barely factors into the story, and Lynda Bellingham’s Inquisitor (given the deeply silly name Darkel) is sidelined from the opening minutes, but we get some excellent interaction between Leela, Romana, and the two K9s, as well as fantastic development for Braxiatel. I’m only familiar with the Benny range on the most basic level, so it’s interesting to watch this character grow — especially with Miles Richardson’s performance supporting the script.

Overall, “The Inquiry” should be better than it is, but it opts to focus upon an inherently undramatic conflict. It’s probably the best of the first three Gallifrey stories, and the generally strong writing quality elevates it, but it feels more like a missed opportunity than anything else.